In Saudi Arabia – where Maximus operate welfare-to-work style schemes for the government – gay, lesbian and transgender people can face punishments ranging from flogging, to imprisonment and even execution. Women are forbidden from carrying out many jobs, and workplaces operate under strict gender segregation. The regime’s Saudization programme means that companies in the private sector who employ non-Saudi nationals may be charged a fee or even prohibited from carrying out government contracts.

Which shows just what a breath-taking fucking hypocrite their UK Marketing Director @mariodunn1 is when he tweets things like this: It seems that Sue Marsh is not the only one prepared to throw away deeply held principles when a big fat Maximus cheque lands on the doorstep.

“interesting reading on how the uk government utilise members of the occupational health industry, funded by insurance companies, to deny that Gulf War Syndrome and ME and Battle Trauma, are all in the mind”
It saves insurance companies countless millions……………………….

For over two decades, in their role as advisers to Government Departments, Wessely School psychiatrists have been tirelessly influencing Government Ministers and Departments of State on behalf of their paymasters, known to be Big Pharma and the medical insurance industry, about what they term “medically unexplained” disorders, notably ME/CFS and Gulf War Syndrome, both of which they assert do not exist

…………One day, in the near future hopefully, the readers of your columns will start to realise the toxic value of the House of Lords.

They do not attend to help the likes of you or me, the £300 per day they receive is just a bonus paid to help propagate their own wealth. With over two hundred of the moth ball brigade having links to banking, insurance and healthcare, their objectives are plainly obvious, to feather their own nests and those they lobby for…………….

Never mind the Ritz, it is this breeding ground of social inequality that should be brought to it’s knees.

You, your sons and daughters, will be the next victims of this conceited mass.
Nothing will ever change till the puppets of the corporate giants have their strings cut once and for all. your voice, your needs, your hopes are all drowned out by the feeding frenzy of the few at the sacrifice of the many.

Privilege versus the foodbanks, the war will not come soon enough for me.

I deny it. It’s not dreadful at all. Look at it this way, our lives are vastly better than 50 or 100 years ago, and also far better than in most other countries in the world. Perhaps we could start at the beginning and look at our massively reduced chance of infant death. You and I are very fortunate to have survived the first couple of years, and we have many people, living and dead, to thank for that.

Do you think I, and every other person who thinks similarly, is only interested in profiteering? If so that’s very sad for you.

(Sigh… another nuance-free poster!) – Mr Passing, I didn’t say it’s a golden age, nor is it dreadful. The foundation for my assertion isn’t simply “that fewer people die needless, pointless deaths than did a century ago”, but it’s a starting point, hence why I said “we could start at”, but perhaps you missed that bit. Things are not perfect, but if you step back from mindless ranting for a moment then maybe you might see the bigger picture (or maybe you won’t!). Think about how things in the past were made better and use that to think about how they could be made better in the future.

Here’s a simple question for people such as you and OBD – Would you prefer to be born when you were, or 100 years ago, and why?

pt
i always tell rude intruders such as yourself, to get lost….and i have told you why…you’re very much like the person that tom pride has put into moderation,,,if i say the name here this comment will go into moderation…
sounds like think first will not go into moderation..

Wow. You characterise a single succinct question as “mindless ranting” because you don’t like the spot it puts you in for answering. You call me nuance-free when I have the temerity to try and get at what you’re really saying.

And if that weren’t enough, you also decide to make an unwarranted assumption about my gender. Don’t do that, sweetie. It’s really quite offensive.

You don’t like debate very much, do you? Which is odd, given that you’ve apparently wandered onto a site full of people you disagree with and then decided to get your arse in your hand when we disagree with you.

One could almost suspect you of only being here to stir up trouble, rather than to honestly try to persuade us of a different viewpoint. And we know what THAT kind of behaviour is called, don’t we?

Now, I’m sure you will ignore the fact that you’ve potentially misgendered me, the fact that you’ve called someone who’s open about being autistic “nuance-free”, and the fact that you’ve pretty much forfeited the right to ask anyone anything by being a thoroughgoing tosspot, and whine about the fact that I didn’t answer your “simple question”. That’s because it’s TOO simple. You offer a choice of two points, with the implicit assumption that the line between them is straight. I would vigorously dispute that implication. In fact… I think the whole reason you’re slinging around terms like “nuance-free” is that actually, we’re seeing the nuances in your argument that you’d rather we didn’t. Like, for example, your apparent assertion that for all A > B where B 0. Um… nope.

By the way, if you need some help with this mindless rant, please consult a logician. Thanks.

j p
you’re absolutely right it’s to simple, non specific, bland, basic, rationalized, and much too focused on the selfish desires of the questioner…..yes, completely free of empathy, love, compassion, and understanding of reality…the expectation is that we should offer a paint it by numbers picture of what is actually going on to this person…the minimum expectation of people who post here surely is a volume of experience, or the ability to put one self in the shoes of others, of people and the dire system we face on a daily basis….not to imply that our minds are faulty, cos we don’t see things this person’s way!…often we must look beyond the words to gain a deeper understanding of the other, not criticize people because of their delivery, but hear their voice…we are not made of metal…

Mr (or Mrs/Ms/Dr/Prof/Rev/Other) Passing – A few points arise from what you said:
1) Your ‘succinct’ question was based on two false assumptions about what I said. I therefore couldn’t answer it rationally. If you can ask it in a different way then I’ll try.
2) It’s vacuous to try to assert anything on an anonymous discussion site about one’s sex, colour, mental health, wealth, sexuality, etc. In this place there is nothing but the opinions one writes. To attempt to justify them with some supposed ‘fact’ about oneself is pointless. Maybe you’re autistic and maybe you’re not, it makes no difference. Your opinions are still your opinions.
3) Of course I hate debate, that’s why I haven’t replied.
4) Do you think stirring up trouble is a bad thing? If you want to reject opinions by attaching a “troll” label rather than debating them then that’s up to you.
5) My question was of course rhetorical, because nobody would rationally prefer to be born in a time when life was (to partially quote Hobbes) “nasty, brutish and short”. The question which perhaps you might still answer is why, and what does that teach us about the future?
6) I wouldn’t (and didn’t) try to express all human well-being through history as just one A to B line. If one were to try then it certainly wouldn’t be straight! But to use your mathematical analogy, I think it is important to extrapolate the causes/solutions of human well-being trends over the previous hundreds of years to our actions in the next hundreds of years. I wish some politicians would do that rather than not thinking beyond the next election.

But here’s the real point. The posters on this and similar web sites overwhelmingly have no desire for forward thinking. Moat are mindlessly venting their anger about their “dreadful” lot in life, and also showing their unwillingness to even think about how to change it. That’s what I meant by “mindless ranting”. I didn’t mean specifically you, but I haven’t checked to see if the cap fits. Occasionally I see one or two people who are attempting more than that. Are you one? When was the last time on this site you saw (or wrote) a sensible suggestion about how to make people’s lives better in the future? Here’s a deal – you make one such suggestion and then I’ll make one…

As so much had been made better in comparison to times further back, that makes it even worse politically to set out to reverse some of those improvements. Our present government boasts of its intention of returning public levels of spending to those of the 1930s, and there is a class which fantasises about getting the workers back in their place, which is one of servitude to them.

It is of no comfort to those forced into states of destitution to know that we are better off than some other past time. It is of no comfort to the sick and disabled who have died prematurely, and who now live more wretchedly, that in times past the sick and disabled had it so much more worse.

When we had advanced so far as to create better support for the sick and disabled, we go backwards when we remove that improved care.

For a friend of ours who has now been been told by Atos, in a manner she experienced as chilling, that her son with severe learning dfficulties, who requires 24-hour care, must now be re-examined regularly for work, while his support is cut back; it is of no comfort that those with learning difficulties were treated worse at some time in the past.

When we had advanced so far that people were paid properly for the work they did, we go backwards when we insist that a growing number ‘volunteer’ their labour. It is known that workfare further displaces those who would have before had employment for doing those jobs, and when we then disparage and punish those intentionally displaced persons we go back to worse times. .

At the same time, we should not be in any way satisfied that it is only in some parts of our world that there had come to be no longer a lot of infant death and disease and poverty-destroyed shortened lives. Where the more mineral wealth a Third-World country has for the corporations of the First World to plunder for those advancements, the poorer and more destabilised is that country. Corporations who are also further pushing for more workers here to have reduced earnings and rights.

When we had, since the last War, built a more fair and equal society, we are in a worse condition today when that is being further dismantled, without there being any need so to do; with the exception of those for whom profit is their sole driving motive, by whatever means.

Increasingly people who make lots of money, by any nasty methods, are spoken of as the best of citizens; and those who are never going to make money to any extent, are disparaged; however much they may themselves be decent and giving of themselves and their communities, and of too much integrity to want to emulate those who decimate others as they make their fortunes. (I don’t in any way refer to those have made their money honestly, without exploiting or harming anyone else.)

The carer who struggles on through every difficulty and state-induced privation is to me a far more to-be-esteemed citizen. The unemployed now under the constant assault of psychologically undermining tactics, media-induced condemnation and removal of income, doing the best they can to bring hope and support to others, are of so much more value as human beings than the rich man in his mansion looking down on them.

It is then of no assistance to the present unemployed, inadequately paid, the sick and the disabled to know that in past times they had been treated so much better.

So, yes, let’s think about how things that had been so much improved are being turned back, and ask why every future policy of this government is focused on making things only better for those who make profits out of the reduced and intentionally made-worse circumstances of others.

pt
i have already told you and still yet more questions…you have a backlog of questions from me that you have yet to answer, as i have said i don’t answer to you…i will add that we here don’t deny that we suffer…as you continuously say to others i will say to you….you have a mind use it….

‘OBD – No, you haven’t said anything about Parkhurst Prison before. I did a text search and found nothing. I think you must be a bit confused……’ this statement is clearly not true as i posted on it to parttimer jan14th…’bullies prey on the frightened, to hyde and deny their own frozen terrors, and in fact project their terrors on to others…now this very thing happens here where the person is reassured that they can defend themselves without violence and this method works every time…and because of it peace and harmonious society broke out in the most violent wing of parkhusrt prison..the inmates started to read, learn languages, the arts, and the classics…they self educated themselves, and learned easily free of the terrors that gummed up their minds…curing mental pain from dr bob johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxphZtIHvHs ‘ ….that it is even relevant that parkhurst was or was not specifically mentioned is nonsense…it is the work of dr bob johnson that is the rope that runs through my posts on this subject…now back to my post of 16 1 15 @ 1.49pm…’pt
i have already told you and still yet more questions…you have a backlog of questions from me that you have yet to answer, as i have said i don’t answer to you…i will add that we here don’t deny that we suffer…as you continuously say to others i will say to you….you have a mind use it….’

parttimer
what a cop out…it plainly proves that you don’t read other peoples posts…
and knee jerk rant/react when you see something you don’t want to see….
‘pt
i have already told you and still yet more questions…you have a backlog of questions from me that you have yet to answer, as i have said i don’t answer to you…i will add that we here don’t deny that we suffer…as you continuously say to others i will say to you….you have a mind use it….
now get lost!

SRSPS – I wasn’t criticising the spelling, I was explaining why I didn’t find it. Maybe Parkhurst Prison IS relevant to this topic, I don’t know. OBD certainly seems very keen to tell people that it is, but then gets all shy about explaining why. I guess we’ll never know!

What OBD is tryiing to express is clear from looking at the references. Which is that if you put a human being into a situation of fear and punishment, they will not be able to function well or stabily.

It has suited recent governments to go along with theories that if you make people afraid, for instance by threatening to remove the means for them to support everyday living, and generally harassing their everyday existence, then they will replace that support for themselves. It should be clear by now that that theory does not work.

While in fact fear is paralysing and the most frequent result is making people more unwell, or to to gain new or increased mental-health problems, and for physical condtions to be exasperated, from the individual being so much destabilised. Too much of an increasing in that destabilsaiton and some will die prematurely or commit suicide.

Then to go forward we need to go look backwards. What worked best for the citizens of this nation was an economy based on fairly full employment, where jobs were real and had a practical purpose, and a proper wage; and those workers had agreed rights to avert exploitation.

Where the rich were taxed at propertionate rates, and there was enough wage money in circulation to keep in business satisfactorily those who served the local community with goods and trade. Where housing was not allowed to rise above what was affordable for purchase or rent, so that families in work did not need to be to claiming benefits in order to survive.

Where it was recognised that there will always be those who cannot viably work, and some will at times have to take a while out of working, in order properly to heal. That bullying and intimidation does not aid anyone’s recovery. That a human being will react and grow so much better to be being treated with respect and a kind understanding.

To look forward is to see what has gone wrong in the present, and react to it; and that much of it has resulted from giving Big Business a free hand, with the results of undermining of wages and conditions for an increasing proportion of the population, and all of the pain many are now experiencing, when things are becoming as bad as a further-back past for some of our population.

This leading to such frauds as the charges against A4E employees displayed below, though hardly a surprise, and that is surely just a tip on the top of the ioceberg – the ones so dumb they actually got caught.
All of these companies make business from people getting jobs even where they don’t exist, even when they do nothing to help them finding jobs, as that’s the responsibiltiy of the claimant, who somehow should be able to do it from their useless advice and ‘courses’. Thus leading to much creative paperwork, as that’s the only way to get their fees.

To put this right it needs to be realised that the government does, yes, have to insist on boundaries to the activities of the free market and the so-called private companies, when nearly all of them leech from the public purse anyway; and, yes, for the government to close down all poverty-pimping companies by no longer giving them any business, as well as to stop enforcing wageless labour through sanctions, to scrap the WCA and Universal Credit, and to start on a road not to Weimar, pretending it’s an English road, but towards regaining some sort of a moral compass.

P.S. Dirt – The ‘Politics of Fear’ of course has been very widely discussed for a long time. I don’t doubt that many politicians (including Bush/Blair) have deliberately used it. …but Parkhurst Prison has got sweet FA to do with it!

PT – Of course I don’t know exactly what anyone else is thinking, but it was obvious OBD was using this subject symbolically. From the references, Dr Bob Johnson developed a way of healing through drawing out the fears that had been induced by the cruel abuses of those at the time in a position of strength and power over them, which had later destroyed their ability to function normally.

OBD is using this to illustrate that the government are causing people to not be able to function well because of inflicting upon them situations of fear and then punishments when they are more weakened. That they are using their power damagingly, and that the people that they are undermining will only start to heal and so function better again when those type of abuses of power are reversed.

There are posters here with serious concerns and conditions, and it’s not right to be sarcastic and mocking about their way of expressing it in ways that are meaningful to them.

The Justice Secretary spent £72,000 of taxpayers’ money in an attempt to maintain his ban on inmates receiving books in prison from visitors.

Last month the High Court ruled Chris Grayling’s prison book ban “unlawful” and Mr Justin Collins said he could see “no good reason” for the Government’s stance and said their defence was “misleading”.

“LORD DAVID FREUD GAINED HIS KNIGHTHOOD BY SENDING THE DISABLED TO THEIR DEATHS”

Freud researched and wrote his welfare “shake-up” plan in just three weeks (Daily Telegraph, 1st May 2006). It recommended that the existing role of private firms (such as UNUM and Atos) in the Government’s “Welfare to Work” programme be dramatically increased; he acknowledged that there was no evidence to suggest that private contractors were any better than the Department for Work and Pensions, but he still concluded that it would be “economically rational” to pay them tens of thousands of pounds for every person they removed from benefits.

Lord Freud explained:
“I sent round a rather interesting piece of analysis to many noble Lords in the Committee, called Models of Sickness and Disability, which showed the differences between the models, explaining the medical model, the reaction of the social model against the pure medical model and the synthesis of the biopsychosocial model. The summary of the biopsychosocial model in the analysis is that: ‘Sickness and disability are best overcome by an appropriate combination of healthcare, rehabilitation, personal effort and social/work adjustments’. There is a coherent theory behind this assessment”.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Such seeming sleight of hand by Waddell and Aylward in seriously misleading a Government Minister and members of the House of Lords is to be deplored.”

……………………………please read how Freud presented a bullshit theory to parliament that was co written by two employees of the UNUM private health insurer and backed up by Professor Peter White.

It is one of the greatest deceptions of the last century, brought about by a failed banker, Freud, and those who stood to gain the most………………

David Freud’s history is interesting: he previously worked as a journalist for the Financial Times and then joined a leading UK investment bank (UBS investment banking), where he was on record as saying to his deputy:
“If the rest of the country knew what we were being paid, there would be tumbrels on the streets and heads carried round on pikes”. In his city career he frequently got things seriously wrong. As one reviewer of his book put it, Freud “will be remembered in the City as one of the key players in several of the most embarrassing and badly managed deals in investment banking”.

His revenue forecasts were, in his own words: “completely potty”; according to the Daily Telegraph, his financial plans for Euro Disney “went so goofy they almost wrecked his career” and on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link he got his sums wrong by £1.2 billion and had to be bailed out by the Government (www.variant.org.uk/events/Doc7Poverty/BankerBankies.pdf

“When you delve into the founder of pscho analysis, SIGMUND FREUD, you will find that many regarded this man as a total nutcase, hence the transfer of genes down the family to the latest instalment of quackery”

“IF YOU READ UP ON DAVID FREUD, YOU WILL COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THE GUY WAS REGARDED AS A FUCKING IDIOT WITHIN BANKING CIRCLES”

…….and yet;
Freud researched and wrote his welfare “shake-up” plan in just three weeks (Daily Telegraph, 1st May 2006). It recommended that the existing role of private firms (such as UNUM and Atos) in the Government’s “Welfare to Work” programme be dramatically increased;

For such an idiot to come up with a welfare shake up plan in just three weeks is nothing short of fiction…………….

David Freud was groomed by UNUM and asked to present dodgy evidence to the House of Lords that was written by two UNUM employees.
The fact that the evidence that was submitted by members of a private health insurance company was withheld intentionally by Freud.

Spiralling suicide rates as connected to work capability assessments are all down to Freud and his deceitful address to the Lords, plying them with uncorroborated evidence that had been deliberately manufactured to deny disability.

“DAVID FREUD SHOULD STAND TRIAL FOR HIS DECEPTION, BE STRIPPED OF HIS KNIGHTHOOD AND FACE CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER”

…………and never forget;
“PLEASE REMEMBER THIS WHEN ASKED TO UNDERGO A HEALTH ASSESSMENT BY A HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL WORKING FOR THE LIKES OF ATOS OR MAXIMUS”

GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL GUIDANCE
ON CONFIDENTIALITY (2009)
AND OCCUPATIONAL PHYSICIANS

7
Do I need the consent of the individual to carry out an occupational health
assessment?
Yes – this has not changed. The individual sh
ould be informed about
the purpose and nature
of the assessment and give their informed cons
ent to the process and the preparation of any
report.

8
Does consent for an occupational health assessment have to be in writing?
It is good practice to obtain written consent wh
ere this is practicable. In some circumstances
(e.g. telephone consultations) this is likely to be impractical and recording verbal consent in
the OH record will suffice.

“6. Covert recording is not acceptable and will result in the termination of the
assessment by the Healthcare Professional and may result in the case being passed to
a Departmental Decision Maker for consideration of ‘good cause’ on the basis of failure
to attend or submit for a face-to-face assessment. This could result in loss of benefit.”

It looks at the same area from a different perspective by asking how many times the DWP has taken “appropriate action” against people that have published recordings of WCA online (a threat it makes in its policy/consent form). The answer was zero times.

DWP’S POLICY ON RECORDING IS NOT THE LAW , NOR IS IT ENFORCEABLE…………………..

“”””“6. Covert recording is not acceptable and will result in the termination of the assessment by the Healthcare Professional and may result in the case being passed to a Departmental Decision Maker for consideration of ‘good cause’ on the basis of failure to attend or submit for a face-to-face assessment. This could result in loss of benefit.”””””

That is not illegal. The recording is no secret, because the result of the recording will be on the internet for all to hear. Even if it was a covert Maximus recording operation is will still not be illegal. So no rules of law have been broken. On the other hand many laws have been broken by the DWP.

“You might think that a patient would require your permission to record a consultation and that any recording made covertly was illegal. But this is not the case. When a patient seeks a consultation, the information being processed is almost exclusively relating to the patient. Under the Data Protection Act, that data is therefore personal to the patient. By recording it, that patient is merely viewed as processing their own data.”

I was on income support before being forced off it and forced on JSA, May 2012. I now have 9 sanctions (7 in succession!!!!) since Feb 2014 – present and my benefits have just been stopped.

As you know, I’m vigorously appealing all this crap and corruption. However, my appeal pack states I was on ESA (it didn’t even exist then!) and had depression (it wasn’t actually depression and never was but because it wasn’t clear what the problem was (since realised, due to allergies and a common misdiagnosis but DWP don’t know this!) for 12 years. A copy was also sent to my MP. However, surely DWP are not allowed to disclose this information on the appeal pack (to the court as well) as this is HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL information. Surely, DWP should have asked for my permission before revealing this information publically. This is a serious breach of the DPA surely. Especially, as everyone is now aware of this highly SENSITIVE information in JCP. It’s OUTRAGEOUS and all the Nazi ‘advisors’ have desperately tried to use this against me to kick me off benefits which is what’s happened. I was bullied, interrogated and threatened several times to go and see my GP: psychological coercion when there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong with me!

I’m absolutely furious. DWP had not right to make this confidential info public like this, especially when there is so much stigma attached to mental illness which I most definitely DON’T have in the first place! What had this to do with anything when this was my situation before I claimed JSA. It’s just another malicious and baseless attempt to kick me off benefits!

Does anyone know the legalities of this as I will definitely bring this up at the appeal and explain this to my MP. I am furious as my BRILLIANT MP knew nothing about the ‘depression’ stuff as DWP sent him the appeal pack before I had a chance to mention this to him and I didn’t want this to sabotage my case (I received the appeal pack first) and has just written a third letter in support of my case!

Sounds like the whole thing is NUN & VOID – Not Worth Any Paper Its Written On. The breaches are numerous with failures. SCRAP & start again from the start including back payments. Until the DWP sort out their mess lets start again.

Sorry -the DWP operate outside of the Law – they make things up all the time – and act with impunity – and its no good to contacted an MP – they just don`t care- and the public don`t either – just keep every thing , for if you survive , and things ever change .

a] put in a complaint with DWP
b] put in a harrasment claim at you local magistrates court that you are being harrassed by DWP delibretaly releasing sensitive personal information in an inappropiate and unautherosed manner. Name the DM, the Senior Office Manager [that person would have had to give permission as Head for info to be passed on – if didn’t will have to in writing show stated that it should not be released….], persons from DWP legal department etc Cost £25. Do It.
c] Put in a complaint to ICO. Copy in all of above.
d] put this to a MP of your choice – you are not bound to just use your local MP if they are in your eyes useless, find another you trust.

Next it will be searched before you go into Maximus camps – Mobile phone in the bag, keys, pens, memory wipes, put them all in the bag before you can enter Maximus – Do you want me to take off my shoes & put them in the bag as well !!! Maximus Genocide Prison Camps love their customers.

MAXIMUS is an equal opportunity employer. We are firmly committed to equal employment opportunity as a matter of sound business policy, as well as corporate responsibility and compliance with the Equality Act.

So Maximus own the Equality Act – All relying on there is no legal aid system left. Dodgy dave has sold out the Equality Act to the highest bidder Maximus. Join up the dots to Atos owning the Human Rights Laws in the UK.

Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
Johnny Void here shows how Maximus Gulf, the company’s subsidiary running the government’s contracts in Saudi Arabia, complies with that country’s strict Sharia laws. As Mr Void himself points out, these prohibit women for taking up many jobs, which may only be done by men. The workforce is also very strictly segregate according to gender, and homosexuality and transgender people punished and legally repressed. Of course, Maximus cannot be entirely blamed for this. As a company working in Saudi Arabi, it is only right that they abide by the laws of that country, even if they are deeply offensive to modern, Western ideas of equality and justice. What makes the situation so galling, however, is Maximus’ abject hypocrisy in claiming to be an ‘equal opportunities employer’. Worse still is Maro Dunn’s, their British market manager’s, flagrant hypocrisy in criticising the British Left’s inability to tackle the discrimination in Islam mandated by religious norms.

Maximus, however, isn’t alone as a company or organisation operating in Britain, which on the one hand boasts of supporting equal opportunities, and on the other promotes sharia law demanding discrimination. Private Eye reported a few weeks ago that the Law Society was also running courses on compiling ‘sharia compliant’ wills, according to a very strict application of Sharia law. This demanded that women receive half of that granted to men, and that non-Muslims should receive nothing. This has provoke more than a little outrage, and Private Eye reported that the Law Society has now dropped the course. I doubt very much that the same double standards will be shown the door by Maximus. It’s another deeply crooked company, but the big bucks from working for Saudi billionaires and exploiting the British poor acts as a very easy and convenient salve for any vestiges of a conscience.

Really sorry to hear about your struggle Batttered – did you ask for the reasons why you had been sanctioned in writing? If it was me, I would go to my GP taking all correspondence I had received and sent – ask for his/her advice. Data Protection is taken very seriously and if you think you have a case then approach a Solicitor who is an expert in Data Protection and Welfare Rights. Hope this helps – good luck.

We live in a free world of free enterprise. stop slaggin off maximus. instead applaud the business acumen of its founders. get jobs you bludgers. work. contribute. make a difference. there is such a thing as society, you know.

rog
you jest, but just in case….society is still comparatively very strong in scotland…which is why we want to leave the union before it’s too late, and ukwm drags us down with the sinking ship…our yes society is over 1.6m strong… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q42qGdP4uw

roger – You’re right in part. This isn’t Maximus’ fault (or ATOS before it). They’re just doing what commercial companies do – i.e. do the minimum work for the maximum profit. The fault is with the Labour and subsequently Tory politicians who decided that it’s a good idea.

Maximus (ditto Atos, etc.) is not a separate alien entity. It is entirely made up of human beings, all of whom have free will, and have chosen to bury any conscience about working for and promoting a company which makes its money in ways which are often damaging to other human beings, and that only for financial gain.

The business acument of their founders is throughly disgusting and should only be condemned, and nobody should be prompted to emulate it. Many people not in paid employment contribute in far more positive ways to society, and there are many in well-paid jobs who do nothing of any benefit to anyone. The ability to make profit is the wrong criteria about in which to judge anyone.

Therefore all that Maximus is doing is completely their fault, being entirely made up of human beings who have from free will decided to pursue the direction of their business model in the way that they do. Those politicians who have from free will decided to encourage and influence them are only as much at fault.

The old industrial injuries were giving way to illnesses with
no clear biological markers – Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) or Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia, Chronic Pain, Multiple Sclerosis, Lyme Disease.
In the early 1990s the new kinds of claims began to rise just as interest rates fell:
profits were threatened. Unum’s 1995 ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Management
Plan’ sounded the alarm:
’Unum stands to lose millions if we do not move quickly
to address this increasing problem’.
It was actually Provident that was quickest off the mark, introducing an
aggressive system of ‘claims management’ that would become the industry norm.
It could not influence interest rates, but it could reduce the number of successful
claims it paid out. Its Independent Medical Examination (IME) was skewed in
favour of the company through the work undertaken by its claims adjusters and
in-house doctors. Illnesses were characterised as ‘self-reported’ and so thrown into
question. Only ‘objective’ test results were accepted. Some disabling conditions
were labelled as ‘psychological’, which made them ineligible for insurance cover

In 2005 the centre produced a monograph,
The Scientific & Conceptual Basis of
Incapacity Benefits
(TSO, 2005), written by Waddell and Aylward and published
by the DWP. In their declarations of interest at the beginning of the text neither
man cites their association with UnumProvident. This matters, because the
monograph provides the unacknowledged intellectual framework for the 2006
Welfare Reform Bill. And the methodology used by Waddell and Aylward is the
same one that informs the work of UnumProvident.

I detest and hate Maximus.as much as everyone else here, but when a company, any company doing anything, sets up in a country, it’s supposed to obey the country’s laws. I hate Maximus for maltreating and impoverishing and indirectly killing disabled people but I can’t hate it for obeying Saudi law when in Saudi Arabia.

Johnny – A company is primarily compelled by market forces to make money, not help anybody other than its own employees and shareholders. That’s what companies always do. You are confusing the responsibilities of a company with the responsibilities of the democratically elected representatives who decided to employ a company which cannot possibly put the needs of vulnerable people above its own commercial objectives. To put it simply, you’re attacking the wrong target.

No Johnny, it is the responsibility of government/society to regulate or oversee companies and organisations so that they do no harm to people (and also of each person within a company to behave so). It’s perfectly possible for each employee to think they’re doing their job responsibly, whilst the company as a whole is doing great harm because it’s not been organised or set up sensibly.

A company itself has no morality, no sense of responsibility and no reason to do ‘good’, so criticising it on that basis is pointless. The only function of a company is to make profit. The fundamental disconnect in the minds of most politicians is that they can’t see the inevitable failure of making a company responsible for something it’s inherently incapable of doing.

An employee cannot be blind to what is the outcome of the work they do for a company. Therefore in the case of a company which makes profit from the suffering of others, then to work well for that company is to make it even worse. No really decent person would do it, as they would know that their comfort comes from the discomforting, or even worse, of others.

When a person or persons sets up a company, they have a choice about what will be the focus of the business of that company. Nobody is compelled to set up a business to oversee forcing people onto workfare with the threat of sanctions, or to see how many sick and disabled peiople they can make it look on paper are all right really.

It is true that it’s an industry that is being wrongly encouraged by a government that doesn’t seem to care how much they mindlessly spend on the endeavour of persecuting the defenceless, even when it becomes far greater amounts than the benefits they’re managing to remove.

Where the symbiotic connection between both politician and company is in fact all too obvious, and it’s more a matter of each side being equally as incompetent.

That might be so if a patient’s/claimant’s unnecessary suffering was an intended result by ATOS/Maximus employees. I have heard of no such cases. As far as I know they were all due to incompetence or indifference.

Hmm. I see. You’re clearly here to tell us all how the world is, as you have arrived at it via your Deep Thinking, and you have very little time for anyone suggesting you might be off base.

What rank arrogance!

Try a little humility. Try asking, instead of telling, us about our experiences. Try actually *listening* to the answers. Try descending from the abstract and seeing how it works out in practice. Try understanding, empathising. And can the evangelical zeal; it isn’t warranted, especially when you come out with such irrelevant crap as you just did here.

Because when it comes down to it, indifference to the destruction your actions wreak on another person’s life IS a malicious act. Screwing your eyes shut when you pull the trigger doesn’t change the fact that you fired the gun.

It’s funny how the Left responds to criticism of Islam/Muslims either by using the words “racist”/”Islamophobe” or saying others do the same thing Islam/Muslims are being accused of. This does not happen for any other religion/ideology.

It’s also funny how certain right wingers use words like “the Left” and “Islam” to group everyone, even people who simply cannot agree with each other on any point, into the same monolithic blocks. Almost as though they don’t have the mental capacity to understand that humans are all individuals, with unique complexities and conditionings that govern their behaviour – and that defy easy characterisation.

And then those right wingers will seize on what they see as the worst exemplars of those groups to tar the whole group. So all Muslims become Islamic militants unless they explicitly decry them; all left-wingers become card-carrying Maoists until they reject Marx and all his works.

Well, fuck that, and fuck those idiots who draw such ridiculous categorisations, because they aren’t worth a second of anyone’s time.

The force said, although the £1.3m claimed from the DWP for the scheme between 2008 and 2010 was not directly received by the employees, many of them were given bonuses for each person they helped into work or for meeting targets.

Documents apparently signed by candidates and employers to show successful job outcomes were, in fact, produced and signed by staff, police said.

A DWP spokesman stressed the convictions related to “historical payments” and were nothing to do with current government employment schemes.

“The DWP treats any allegation of fraud by its contractors very seriously and we fully co-operated with the police throughout their investigation and supported the criminal proceedings,” he said.‬

The defendants were:

Ines Cano-Uribe, 38, of Madrid, Spain, was found guilty of one count of forgery and one count of conspiracy to make false instruments. She was cleared of another count of forgery and one of conspiracy to use false instruments.
Zabar Khalil, 35, of Dolphin Road, Slough, was found guilty of one count of forgery but not guilty on three other counts of the same charge.
Matthew Hannigan-Train, 30, of Westacre Close, Bristol, was found of one count of conspiracy to make false instruments.
Hayley Wilson, 27, of Middlesex Drive, Milton Keynes, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to make false instruments.
Dean Lloyd, 38, of Rochfords, Coffee Hall, Milton Keynes, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of forgery.
Julie Grimes, 52, of Monks Way, Staines, Middlesex, pleaded guilty to nine counts of forgery.
Aditi Singh, 31, of Elmshott Lane, Slough, pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery.
Bindiya Dholiwar, 28, of Reddington Drive, Slough, pleaded guilty to six counts of forgery and one count of possession of articles for use in frauds.
Nikki Foster, 31, of High Tree Drive, Earley, Wokingham, pleaded guilty to seven counts of forgery and one of conspiracy to make false instruments.
Charles McDonald, 44, of Derwent Road, Egham, Surrey, pleaded guilty to six counts of forgery and one of conspiracy to make false instruments.

Yasmin Ahmad, Sarah Hawkins and Serge Wyett were acquitted of all counts.

The trial at Reading Crown Court took 13 weeks. Sentencing is due to begin on 30 March.

(registered as an independent charity) and you will find that they too are a member of the same Atos family along with their partner the Royal College of Physicians of which the FOM is a faculty member of, and living rent free in the same accommodation.. By both groups distancing themselves and pertaining to be a different organisation from Atos/Unum they can gain additional seats on government advisory panels, give support to policies, and be additionally consulted on new legislation to give strength to the intended changes., all whilst being part of that same group.

In 2009 the FOM held their 30th Anniversary celebration at the House of Lords supported by their sponsors Serco and Atos Healthcare..

Occupational health services serving more than 1,000,000 Government and private employees had achieved SEQOHS accreditation by October 2012. this is managed by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) on behalf of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FOM). Staff working for some of the country’s biggest employers are receiving occupational health advice and support from accredited services; this includes 1,000,000 staff looked after by ATOS healthcare. A hint came from Cameron when he said “We are all in it together.”.

geoff
yep, the framework of claim denial is now solidly in place…too poor to pay get no treatment….can pay get over treated until one is skint, unless one has gold plated health protection scheme in place…since the nhs was 1st set up neoliberalism has targeted it…and yet we still pay for a service fewer and fewer people have complete/full access to…even though all can still get through the door, to be quickly thwarted/fobbed off…

This week the sixth International Forum on Disability Management, IFDM 2012, takes place at Imperial College London. It is sponsored by some of the world’s largest medical insurance companies, Unum among them, and speakers include DWP chief medical adviser Dr Bill Gunyeon and Professor Sir Mansel Aylward, formerly DWP chief medical adviser and director of the Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research at Cardiff University, which was sponsored by Unum from its inception in 2003 until 2009.

Unum’s website states that during this sponsorship period “a series of papers was published, identifying the range of factors that determine why some people become long-term absentees”. The Cardiff papers advocated a “biopsychosocial model” of disability which Unum says “informed its approach to medical underwriting”. It is the same approach upon which the current Atos work capability assessment (WCA) is based. Concomitantly, the company were advising the UK government on welfare reform.

The work capability assessment was developed in 2008 with the assistance of technical working groups. As you may be aware, the Government consult widely with stakeholders and sources of public and private sector expertise, to ensure that its policies are evidence-based. Two Unum employees, a doctor and an occupational therapist, were invited to join the technical working group that carried out the review of the personal capability assessment. As with all members of the technical working group they were appointed as recognised experts in benefit assessment and in supporting return to work for people with disability.

National Savings & Investments website crashes as new ‘Granny Bonds’ paying a ‘stonking’ rate of interest go on sale. Who would have thought that a General Election was just around the corner… 😉 Well, that’s the ‘grey vote’ taken care off; smart move, Georgie Porgie 😀

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request which we received on 24/12/2012.

You asked:
1. Have executives of U N U M corporation sat on mental or physical, technical working
groups on behalf of any British government?
2. Have executives or staff, from either U N U M, or A T O S, acted in steering any
favourable decisions for contracts for themselves?
3. Have A T O S, who funded the Biopsychosocial Research department at Cardiff
University, now distanced themselves from this department?
4. Does the department above, still do classes and accreditation for A T O S HCP
personnel?
5. Could this cosy relationship be defined as a “Conflict of interest” that is clearly apparent,
blatant and reprehensible, given the magnitude of the effects of their policies inflicted on
the disabled?

In reply to Qs 1, 2, 3 & 4 DWP does not hold any information on these subjects, as they are not
connected to the DWP Medical Services Contract.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the three main political parties are refusing to say how often ministers have met with an insurance company set to make huge financial gains from incapacity benefit reform.

Disability News Service (DNS) submitted a request to the DWP under the Freedom of Information Act to ask how many meetings there had been between executives of Unum and government ministers since 2001.

But DWP officials claim there is no “central database” of such meetings and therefore it would be too expensive to find out how often coalition and Labour ministers had met with Unum over the last 10 years.

Since 1994, Unum has been advising the United Kingdom government on claims. The company has been involved with the UK’s controversial Welfare Reform Bill.[50][51] Unum was investigated by the BBC in England.[

The Equality Act became law in October 2010 bringing together all previous
discrimination protection laws, such as the Disability Discrimination Act, under one piece of legislation. {What rubbish Unum law]

This guide will provide you with an overview of the Act and how
Unum can help you to manage its impact and identify what action
you need to take as an employer. It is imperative that employers take note of these changes and ensure that they comply with them.

What areas does the Equality Act cover?
The Equality Act ensures consistency in what employers need to do to
make the workplace a fair environment for all and to comply with the
law. It has also strengthened the law, helping the public to think more
positively about people with ‘protected characteristics’ (see below for
more details on these).
The Equality Act makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone on the
grounds of:
• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

These are called protected characteristics.
It also includes the following types of discrimination:
• Direct Discrimination
• Associative Discrimination
• Discrimination by Perception
• Indirect discrimination
• Harassment
• Harassment by a third party
• Victimisation

The rate you get is made up of 2 components (parts). How much you get depends on how your disability or health condition affects you.
Care component
Care component Weekly rate Level of help you need
Lowest £21.55 Help for some of the day or with preparing cooked meals
Middle £54.45 Frequent help or constant supervision during the day, supervision at night or someone to help you while on dialysis
Highest £81.30 Help or supervision throughout both day and night, or you’re terminally ill
Mobility component
Mobility component Weekly rate Level of help you need
Lower £21.55 Guidance or supervision outdoors
Higher £56.75 You have any other, more severe, walking difficulty

…………………….but now they are using your DLA TO REDUCE HOUSING BENEFIT.

From: debbie

14 August 2014

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Ian Duncan Smith. states in the Telegraph.
‘DLA, which of itself is a payment to support housing costs’

Please clarify that this is the DWP policy?

DLA is awarded for care and mobility costs.
NOT for housing costs??

Nowhere on a DLA award, does it state that a percentage of DLA is
for housing costs??

A4E – smacks of identity theft to me. Wonder if the people they signed the fraudulent documents on behalf of are aware of this. If I had attended that particular branch on any course I would asking if my name or details had been used in the scam and then seeking legal advice. Imagine people getting bonuses for reaching targets and getting other people jobs. Ludicrous!!!! However, they have provided people who are being forced to go onto these courses with an excuse not to go – in case their personal information is used fraudulently.

I am on the Work Programme, A4e. I have had to make several complaints, including one’s of malpractice. There are some highly dodgy goings on here. They have slipped up, told lies and fed me total garbage.
A4e Manager, wouldn`t answer my questions, or explain any investigations that have been made. These are serious complaints. I have been waiting for repercussions for daring to complain. For now, it seems, their attitude towards me is far more receptive than it was before.

Obesity a disability? Only lawyers will benefit from the ECJ’s farcical classification

The Spectator – 15th January 2015 10:59

Real disability is humbling for those who have to live with it and those who care for the disabled. A true disability — degenerative neurological disease, for instance — involves the equivalent of a daily war to live in the way that most of us take for granted. We shouldn’t mock the truly disabled by misusing the word.

Yet the European Court of Justice has classified obesity as a disability, meaning that we are all now expected to view those who, in the majority of cases, attained morbidly-obese status by determined and unrelentless bad-lifestyle choices as deserving of our understanding and admiration as those who battle real disability everyday. The interesting thing behind this latest ruling was that obesity wasn’t defined in precise medical terms, hence leaving the potential applications of this ruling wide open.

A benefits clerk employed to check for bogus claims cheated £50,000 in state handouts after running up debts with payday lenders Wonga.

Caroline Bryon, of Bayley Close, Hyde, worked for the Department of Work and Pensions, checking that claims for tax credits were genuine.

But she was secretly fiddling working tax credits and child tax credits herself.

Manchester Crown Court heard mum-of-two Bryon, 34, lied about her childcare costs – claiming they were double what they were – and lied about paying for childcare even when she was on maternity leave.

She also hid the fact that she was living with a partner who was working, racking up £50,344 in overpayments in just two years.

After Bryon’s own claims came under scrutiny from her employers she was sacked, arrested, and pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud by false representation between 2009 and 2011.

But she was spared jail after her defence barrister said locking her up would be ‘catastrophic’ for her two children.

He said her offences happened because she had been drinking heavily, had run up debts to payday lenders, and needed her own means after starting a relationship with a new man.

Jonathan Rogers, prosecuting, said: “The defendant worked for the DWP, processing and checking claims for exactly the type of benefit she was overpaid. One of her childcare providers stated that she asked her to say she had paid her almost double what she had in fact in paid and to backdate it. (Bryon) will have known what checks might be carried out because she carried them out herself.”

Andrew Evans, defending, argued there was ‘no evidence’ she had used her knowledge of the system for personal gain. A trail of documents and emails sent from her work account revealed she was living with her new partner, and showed there was’ no thought or sophistication whatsoever’ to her offence, he added.

“The reason why a 34-year-old lady sits in this court for the first time stem from debt – we have the name Wonga appearing predominantly – we have interest rates of 4000 per cent, we have a debt spiral”, Mr Evans added.

Sentencing her to 14 months, suspended for two years, with 200 hours unpaid work and a requirement to attend a women’s project, Recorder Andrew Thomas QC said her offence was ‘aggravated’ by her job, and that she had cheated her ‘colleagues, friends and neighbours – decent people who work hard and have to pay taxes.’

Don’t you get it SRSPS, the virtuous poor are to have less status than that of the criminal. Criminals are part of the “hardworking families” fraternity their nefarious activities now contributing the GDP statistics of the uk.

DWP hopes to recruit 50 more by April 2015 to help expand the new benefit to one in three jobcentres

Computer World UK: Published 11:32, 14th January 2015

There are now 160 people working on the Universal Credit digital service, according to minister for disabled people Mark Harper.

It is a dramatic increase in manpower compared with last January, when just three members of DWP IT staff were working on the digital system, which will be the eventual platform for all benefit claimants.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) plans to recruit a further 50 staff members between now and April to work on the beleaguered benefit reform project, Harper said in a written answer to shadow work and pensions minister Stephen Timms.

“””Last month a senior HM Treasury official warned the government may have to write off £663 million on Universal Credit IT. The wastage is a result of the decision to develop two systems concurrently, as just £34 million of the £697 spent on IT will be used for the final digital system.”””

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